This invention pertains in general to electronic commerce and in particular to a system for centralizing shopping from multiple Internet-based merchants.
Electronic commerce on the Internet has become commonplace. There are many merchants offering goods and services via web sites on the Internet, and there are an even greater number of customers who purchase the goods and services. In many cases, the electronic commerce transactions involve physical goods. For example, many customers purchase items such as books, compact disks (CDs) and DVDs via the Internet. Customers can also purchase electronic content such as downloadable text and/or music and access to web sites that provide news or entertainment stories.
Most electronic commerce sites on the Internet use ad hoc purchasing systems. For example, a web-based music merchant typically has a purchasing system that is valid for only that merchant's family of web sites. Therefore, a customer must establish an account and/or provide payment information to each merchant that the customer patronizes. These separate accounts are inconvenient to both parties. The merchant must maintain a dedicated account management and payment system. The customer must establish separate accounts with numerous merchants.
Due to these inconveniences, customers are often reluctant to purchase items from smaller or relatively unknown merchants. These merchants lack the brand recognition and trust associated with larger, better known merchants. Therefore, the customers hesitate to engage in risky behavior, such as providing a credit card number or shipping address, to the merchants. In addition, where a customer is interested in numerous related items from numerous different merchants, it can be cumbersome to collect all of these items from these merchants and purchase them one by one. As a result, there is a need in the art for an electronic commerce system that allows customers to independently create a collection of items from multiple merchants that can be purchased in a single transaction and in a manner that alleviates customer concerns regarding making purchases from smaller or lesser known merchants.